


late nights make for fast friends

by dogloser



Category: Octopath Traveler (Video Game)
Genre: Campfires, Canon Compliant, Domestic Fluff, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Fluff without Plot, Friendship, Gen, Humor, No beta we die like mne, Team Bonding, Team Fluff, Teambuilding, i thought it was cute and had to write it, it's really just a little blurb, of all of them sharing stories around a campfire
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-06
Updated: 2020-09-06
Packaged: 2021-03-06 20:28:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,582
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26314936
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dogloser/pseuds/dogloser
Summary: the travelers have a campfire, full bellies, and a few stories to share.
Comments: 4
Kudos: 55





	late nights make for fast friends

“Necessity is the greatest teacher,” Cyrus told them. “I suppose it shouldn’t be any surprise that you’re such a wonderful cook, H’aanit.”

The campfire crackled, sending little embers floating into the air to disappear. Therion watched them lazily from where he lay. Beneath his shawl, he thoughtfully thumbed the skin of an apple.

“I’d second that,” Alfyn agreed. He sat cross-legged in front of the fire, warming his hands. After overdoing it in a fight against a Froggin, his fingers were colder than the ice magic he wielded. “Nothin’ taught me better than in the heat of the moment.”

“Hast thou been in many heats of the moment?” H’annit questioned. Linde stretched out beside her, close enough to be illuminated by the fire, but the snow leopard really didn’t need the extra warmth.

Alfyn chuckled and shrugged. “A few times, with medicine an’ with fightin’. Coupla times I whipped up a tonic for a patient who needed it right then, an’ later, when I tried to remember how I did it, nothin’ came to mind. Like my hands moved on their own.”

“Surely,” Olberic said, “that is a sign of great knowledge within you.”

The apothecary had the decency to blush. “Aw, shucks, you’re makin’ me blush.”

“As if that’s hard to do,” Tressa teased. 

When Alfyn protested, Ophilia hid a smile behind her hand. “I’d have to agree with Tressa,” she said. “Any praise has your cheeks as rosy as frostbite.”

“Now now,” Cyrus interrupted, “let’s not give our Alfyn too much grief. He’s simply an innocent soul.”

Primrose didn’t look up from whittling when she said, “And what of you, Professor? What necessity pushed you to master something?”

“Oh?” Cyrus hummed, holding his chin in thought. It only lasted a moment before the lightbulb went off behind his eyes. “Ah, when I was studying to be a teacher,” he began, “I was tutoring some of my fellow classmates. One in particular came to me, asking for help regarding alchemic formulas which even I was struggling with, but when it came time to explain them to him, I found that I had a better understanding of them than I ever did on my own.”

“Aye,” H’aanit agreed. “To teach well ist to knowest it well.”

“What about y’all?” Alfyn asked. “You’ve gotta have some stories of ya own.”

“I believe I truly learned the art of swordsmanship in my first battle,” said Olberic. “I had been practicing day and night and still believed myself to be an amatuer. Only when I was in the heat of battle and found my blade unfaltering did I realize that I had underestimated myself.”

“My story isn’t so different.” Primrose finally put down her knife, now inspecting the stick she’d sharpened. Pleased, she tossed it in the fire. “Learning to dance was incredibly difficult. I had two left feet, much like you do, Professor. But walking onto the stage for the first time, my feet seemed to move on their own. I was told later that it was very good, for a beginner.”

Ophilia chuckled. “I can’t say I understand,” she admitted. “As a child, when I was first tasked with reading scripture aloud in our church, I practiced for weeks beforehand. My sister claimed that I even murmured it in my sleep at times. But when the time came, and I found myself standing before the pews and the Flame, the words wouldn’t come. I tripped and stumbled over them like a child caught in a lie.”

“Surely thou stretchest the truth,” H’aanit commented. “I fail to believen that thou didst so terribly.”

“Oh, no, it was awful.” The cleric laughed, her cheeks flush with embarrassment. “I did much better the second time, although I was shocked my father even asked me to recite scripture again.”

“Well, I’ve been a great merchant since I could talk,” Tressa interjected, “as I’m sure we all know. But the first time I ever had my real customer! Gosh, I was manning the store alone for the first time, ‘cause Ma and Pa were out buying supplies. I can’t even remember what happened! The guy walked in asking for something, and I just froze. I know that store like the back of my hand, but as soon as he asked me where our noxroot was, it was like I’d never been there before.”

“Nerves got the best of ya.” Alfyn nodded. “Happens to all of us. When I was just startin’ out, I spilled countless salves and tonics, ‘cause my hands were shakin’ so bad.”

A crunch caught the traveler’s attention. Every eye turned to Therion, laying with an arm behind his head. In his hand was a bright red apple.

Therion, always quick to know when eyes were on him, glared. “What?”

“You’re not gonna take the moment to brag?” Tressa asked. There was a fire of challenge in her eyes. “About how you’re a master thief, and how you’ve been one since you could walk?”

Therion only raised an eyebrow in response. “Since when do I brag?”

“Like,  _ always _ ,” the merchant continued.

“Name one time.”

Tressa blanked. “Uhh…”

The thief snickered and bit down on his apple, seemingly content with his victory. He was expecting to be left alone after that, but the seven others around him had another idea.

“Surely thou werenst always such a great thief,” H’aanit remarked. “We all needest a place to begin.”

“Yeah,” Alfyn agreed, “you’ve gotta start somewhere, and make plenty a mistakes along the way.”

Cyrus added, “I do believe the prompt was, ‘necessity is the greatest teacher’.”

“Therion,” Olberic said, “I believe everyone would like to hear your tale.”

The thief in question crunched his apple again. The travelers looked to each other, wondering if tonight was yet another night Therion would dodge a question by pretending he hadn’t heard it or that none of them existed.

To all their surprises, though, Therion sat up, twirling the apple in his hand.

“I’m only going to say this once,” he said, “so shut up and listen.”

Everyone promptly shut up and listened.

“I was a pretty shitty thief at first,” Therion began. “I’d try to reach into people’s overcoats and end up yanking them around trying to find their coin purse. Most of the time I was able to play it off by just being a clumsy kid that tripped into them. Well, I got pretty bold, since that lie had worked so much. So one night, I walked straight up to a guy Olberic’s size—” He waved his apple to the giant of the group for reference. “—and tripped right into him. I caught onto his coat for balance and was digging around in his pockets with my free hand.”

Since the travelers couldn’t remember the last time Therion had shared a story with them, none of them were too keen on interrupting. Tressa even urged, “And? And?”

Therion smirked. “I got away with it,” he said.

They all began to let out a heavy sigh, when—

“For all of thirty seconds.”

And just like that, their attention returned to the man clad in purple. Therion continued.

“I was apologizing and just starting to walk away when he realized what happened. And he grabbed my wrist, starts hollering about how I’m a little punk and how he’ll get me thrown in gaol. I panicked. I grab the tails of his coat to try to get him off of me, and next thing I know—” He snapped his fingers, and a flame appeared in his hand. “—it’s on fire.”

Tressa’s jaw dropped. Alfyn coughed, and it turned into a laugh. 

Cyrus asked, incredulously, “You’d never done fire magic before?”

Therion shook his head and let the flame die out. “Never.”

H’aanit and Primrose were both chuckling. Ophilia was hiding her laugh behind her hand, and even Olberic looked amused.

Tressa wheezed, “You lit his ass on fire?!”

Therion nodded and tugged his scarf up to cover his mouth, but not before a few of them saw a little smile on the corners of his mouth. “He screamed bloody murder. I had no idea what the hell was going on, so I booked it. By the time I calmed down, I was across town. The next day everyone was talking about some stupid drunk who’d managed to light up his own clothes and then threw himself in the river to douse it.”

Cyrus laughed heartily, even dabbing at his eyes with a handkerchief. “That is… quite the tale, Therion.”

The thief smirked. With his story finished, he laid back down and crunched his apple.

Tressa finally stopped laughing, although her breath was still trembling from the dying force of it. “Wow, I was not expecting  _ that _ .”

Ophilia shook her head. “Neither was I.”

“Truly, thou art full of surprises, Therion,” H’aanit said.

“Truly,” Olberic agreed.

Therion shrugged. “What can I say?”

“Oh, gosh, that reminds me,” Alfyn started, “have I ever told y’all about the first time I ever tried ice magic?”

“ _ No _ ,” Tressa gasped. “You have to tell us now.”

“It’s only fair,” Primrose hummed. “I have a story about learning dark magic for when you’re done, Alfyn.”

And so their chatter waxed deep into the night. Eventually, Therion tossed his apple core into the fire and listened contentedly to everyone sharing their tales. As the moon rose, the stories became shorter and shorter, until everyone mumbled their sleepy goodnights, and the fire dimmed to nothing more than embers.

**Author's Note:**

> i had this idea after some in game travel banter and had to type it up real quick because this fandom needs more content sdjklsfd  
> [ my tumblr](http://doggoneloser.tumblr.com/)


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